Rally caps Gators' preseason in style

Dan Brown/Gazette
Senior Chris Singleton delivered an RBI single to win the game for the Gators on Saturday against Berkeley.

A two-out, three-run rally in their last at-bat propelled the Goose Creek Gators to a 4-3 win over Berkeley in the final round of the Post 166 preseason baseball tournament on Saturday at GCHS.

Trailing 3-1 and down to their last out, the Gators rallied for three runs to pull out the win on a game-winning single by senior Chris Singleton.

“I was very happy that the kids were able to fight through it,” Gators coach Chris Pond said. “I was very proud of them for not quitting. Maybe a game like this will help us down the road.”

Because of the rain-shortened tournament schedule there was no champion crowned in this year’s Post 166 event.

With two outs in the seventh, Stags reliever Jeffrey Stone hit Cody Jones with a pitch to ignite the Gators’ rally. Zach Owens followed with a single to left then Christian Sillanpa tied the game at 3-3 with a two-run double to right center.

Sillanpa scored on Singleton’s game-winning base hit.

Singleton was the winning pitcher too, tossing a scoreless top of the seventh.

With the win, the Gators salvaged their only official game of the rain-shortened tournament. “The rain washed out everything,” Pond said. “We were only able to play three innings on Monday night (against Ashley Ridge) before the rain came.”

The Stags had loaded the bases with one out in the top of the seventh but could not plate any insurance runs.

BHS tallied all three of its runs courtesy of a three-run second inning, and tried to make it stand behind the five-hit pitching of starter Joe Glauser.

Connor Teague started the second inning for Berkeley with a double off the left field fence that missed being a home run by inches. Kyle Morrison followed with a two-bagger to center that one-hopped the fence to score Teague with the game’s first run.

Chase Ganey’s single plated Morrison to make the score 2-0, his first of two hits. Ganey then scored on a throwing error after an infield single by Eric Orton.

Ganey’s two hits paced the Stags’ six-hit attack while Singleton and Sean Freeland each tallied a pair of hits to lead the Gators.

Stone threw two-plus innings of relief to absorb the loss.

The Gators were 6-0 in the preseason before beginning the season Monday, March 10 against Academic Magnet.

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